As a way of bringing books into the mainstream cultural conversation, I tried to come up with a concept that combined other media formats. The audience is occasional book buyers who might only buy between three and five books a year, so it’s highly likely they are still engaged with cultural conversations and are aware of the latest releases, just find out about these from other media sources. In the brief, Penguin state that you can choose to select a specific community within this group to target. As the audience span a wide range of ages, I’ve decided to narrow it down to 16-30 year olds who are particularly interested in music. They like listening to music whenever they get the chance, eg. while travelling, and enjoy frequent visits to live gigs and events which they use to socialise or as a hobby. To narrow down the genres even further I’m focusing on rap and hip-hop music.
My Concept / Idea
Organising a social event where books merge with music. Before the event, everyone is encouraged to read and find out about one of the books being promoted on the day, they'd be able to choose from a list provided. On stage performing, would be a selection of freestyle rappers - each addressing different books. Alongside I’d have an interactive element where the audience is able to send through quotes or scenes of the book that are projected live onto the stage to which each artist then starts freestyle rapping. Eg. The audience could choose to name a character in the book to which the freestyle rapper then could rap from the characters perspective, about the visuals and clothing of the character, or rap about where the character is from and their surroundings etc. Using word suggestions from the audience adds an engaging element to a social music event while also promoting books through modern day technology. The event would encourage people to read the chosen book so that they are able to take part in the interactive element so they can see what the freestyle artists come up with based on their own ideas from the selected book. Having a selection of artists on the day also means there'd be multiple books being promoted so when the audience listen to a rap about a book they haven't heard of they might enjoy the story and be inspired to purchase the book at the end of the event.